It is better to be a warrior in a garden, than a gardener in a war.
It is better to be a warrior in a garden, than a gardener in a war.
BRUCE LEE
Have you trained to be a warrior?
It is reported, that a student one asked Bruce Lee, “Master, you teach me about fighting, but you speak about peace. How do you reconcile the two?”
Today’s aphorism was Master Lee’s response.
It is a wonderful perspective to see the world through peaceful filters in which we are homogenously intertwined through intelligence, reason, courtesy, respect, and decorum. Yet, if history teaches us anything, it is that the blissful absolutes in life, rarely, if ever, exist.
What is it specifically that is required in order for a person with peace in their heart to prosper in a society of so many permutations?
There are many potential answers to this question, but at the end of the day, an understanding of how, and why, certain variables in life transpire, strikes me as the core necessity to navigate one’s way through the myriad variables in life.
Speaking personally as a second-degree black belt, I can share that in our training, we are taught that all acts of violence that we have practiced with extreme diligence and vital precision, are to be entirely withheld in every last possible opportunity.
We are taught to walk away from circumstances that we can no longer negotiate, with peace in our heart, and we are taught never to use violence until, and only until, someone in our world is causing us or someone we care about to be potentially in harm’s way.
Under those circumstances when there is nothing left but violence to combat violence, only then is it appropriate.
So to Master Lee’s point, if we did not study the multiple forms of self-defense against any form of aggression with, or without weapons, we would be lambs to the slaughter for any thug, who was determined to pray upon our vulnerability to their sole benefit.
In the course of learning martial arts, we train in so many forms, with so many methodologies, that they become so entirely ingrained within our being as to make them second nature in the event that something were to unexpectedly go astray and require our instant attention.
It is unfortunate that any of us need to train to be a warrior at all, especially if we are already living with a peaceful heart. But I can assure you, having been a victim of violent crime myself, and having suffered the post traumatic stress that came from that, that learning to be a warrior was one of the most important of all the things I have learned in my entire life.
I hope I never need to use it, and I hope even more that the other party who might potentially put me in that position, recognizes the severe repercussions that will come, should they choose to do so. Now, I am off to enjoy the gorgeous flowers in my garden.
Happy Thursday!
Leave a Comment